Background Improved discourse production is a priority for all key stakeholders in aphasia rehabilitation. A Cochrane review of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) for aphasia found speech and language therapy treatment to be effective for improving the ability to communicate in everyday interaction. However, this large-scale review did not focus exclusively on treatment for discourse production and

Background Aphasia is a devastating disorder occurring in more than 30% of stroke victims. Speech and language therapy (SLT) is the treatment of choice for post-stroke aphasia (PSA) in acute and chronic periods, yet benefits are limited and gains in several language domains are not always translated to both untreated deficits and functional communication. Therefore, pharmacotherapy and non-invasive

ABSTRACT Background The impact of stroke and aphasia has been recognised as a family problem for many years with studies highlighting spouses’ need for information at different times along the recovery journey, for practical and emotional support, recognition, and respite. In particular, the decision-making around discharge from hospital, or planning for rehabilitation, is not always collaborative

Background A reduced quality of life for people with aphasia is in part associated with their loss of friendships and social networks. Twitter offers people with communication disability a way to exchange information, develop and maintain their social networks and connections, and participate in society online. However, little is known about how Twitter is used to exchange information about aphasia

Background Speech and language therapists in Gulf Arabic countries still rely on informal aphasia and/or translated western-language assessments to assess the language proficiency of people with aphasia. However, these tests are not sensitive to the linguistic and cultural features of the Arabic language, which may lead to inaccurate diagnosis. This paper describes the preliminary development and psychometric

Background: The complexity of speech motor control, and the incomplete conceptualisation of phases in the transformation of the speech code from linguistic symbols to a code amenable to a motor system, tend to obscure the understanding of acquired apraxia of speech (AOS). The four-level framework (FLF) of speech sensorimotor control suggests the differentiation between speech motor planning, programming

Background: Guidelines to support accessible goal setting with stroke survivors with aphasia are lacking. Aims: This review aimed to (i) determine the communication barriers and facilitators relevant to accessible goal setting for stroke survivors with aphasia and (ii) propose recommendations for accessible goal setting practice. Design: We conducted a narrative literature review incorporating a systematic

Background: Up to 60% of people with aphasia experience persistent word-finding difficulties into the chronic stage, starting six months after the stroke. Semantic Feature Analysis (SFA) and Phonological Components Analysis (PCA) are two common word-finding interventions that use the generation of semantic features for SFA (e.g. category) and phonological features for PCA (e.g. first sound) to improve

ABSTRACT Background: Usual care is the term used to describe everyday practice in the management of a client within a profession. The knowledge of the tasks used in therapy and key therapeutic processes used within these treatments, provides critical information about if and how the therapy works. The Very Early Rehabilitation in SpEech Randomised Controlled Trial (VERSE RCT) had three arms with therapists

Background: The Directions Into Velocities of Articulators (DIVA) model and its partner, the Gradient Order DIVA (GODIVA) model, provide neurobiologically grounded, computational accounts of speech motor control and motor sequencing, with applications for the study and treatment of neurological motor speech disorders. Aims: In this review, we provide an overview of the DIVA and GODIVA models and how

Background: Lexical access in bilinguals can be influenced by the demands that different interactional contexts pose on cognitive control processes. However, how varying cognitive control demands impact lexical access in bilingual persons with aphasia (BPWA) remains unclear. Verbal fluency tasks may provide valuable insights into the interplay between cognitive control and lexical access in BPWA by

Background: Spiritual aspects of aphasia rehabilitation are poorly understood, though identified within adjustment. Existing spiritual health assessments have not been used with people with aphasia, and no structured program to facilitate intervention has been documented, despite acknowledgements that spirituality is important in health and wellbeing and distinct from quality of life and mental health

(2020). Primary Progressive Aphasia and Other Frontotemporal Dementias: Diagnosis and Treatment of Associated Communication Disorders. Aphasiology. Ahead of Print.

Background: Stroke-like migraine attacks after radiation therapy – also known as SMART syndrome – constitute a rare condition characterised by headache, seizures, vision abnormalities, hemiparesis, and aphasia. The condition usually resolves within a few days or weeks with little to no residual impairment; however, recovery in some cases is protracted and incomplete. Aims: The purpose of this case

ABSTRACT Background: Stroke causes communication impairments but we lack the real-world population-level data needed to inform inpatient and community services. Aims: To establish prevalence of aphasia and dysarthria within inpatient stroke survivors, describe those affected, the amount of therapy they receive and their outcomes. Methods & Procedures: Secondary analysis of data from the Sentinel Stroke

(2020). The value of “communication strategies” in the treatment of aphasia. Aphasiology. Ahead of Print.

(2020). Acquired language disorders. A case-based approach (3rd edition). Aphasiology. Ahead of Print.

Background: Everyday communication often occurs in situations that pose high attentional and social demands. People with aphasia have reported perceiving greater challenge communicating in these situations, but more specific information about these challenges could help clinicians and researchers work toward more meaningful intervention outcomes and increased life participation. Aims: To explore the

ABSTRACT Background: Written language impairments are common in Alzheimer’s disease and reduced syntactic complexity in written discourse has been observed decades before the onset of dementia. The validity of average dependency distance (ADD), a measure of syntactic complexity, in cognitive decline needs to be studied further to evaluate its clinical relevance. Aims: The aim of the study was to determine

Background: The pattern of post-stroke aphasia in Spanish speakers has not previously been reported. Furthermore, the association between aphasia type and demographic variables is not clearly understood. Aims: To investigate the incidence and type of aphasia in first-ever acute stroke during the early chronic and later chronic periods in native Spanish speakers and the effect of demographic variables

Background: Language can be viewed and analysed at many levels. One of them is, “language in use” or discourse. A complex system of cognitive and linguistic processes is required for the performance of discourse; any deficits at this system level can impair the use of language. Studies have shown impaired performance of discourse in individuals with Wernicke’s aphasia (WA). In this condition the participant

Background: Conversation Partner schemes are increasingly used as a way of addressing the psychosocial and emotional consequences of aphasia, providing opportunities for people with aphasia to engage in authentic conversation and to develop social relationships. As yet, there are no outcome measures, that are theorised to match what is expected to change and how such changes are best identified, and

Rationale: In the approach presented here, adult apraxia of speech (AoS) is understood as a disorder affecting the language-specific motor patterns a speaker acquires during childhood and adolescence. The phonological factors that influence articulatory accuracy in AoS reflect the relative vulnerability of their accompanying motor planning variables to apraxic impairment, depending on the extent to

Background: Neglect dyslexia (ND) is a reading disorder that impairs the left visual field. The Left periphery (LP) is the highest layer of the extended syntactic structure, and it represents the interface between communicative intention and syntactic realization. Topic and Focus are the two central projections of the LP. Sentences involving either Topic or Focus display marked structures in which

Background: Whilst reading difficulties are a common feature of aphasia, there has been limited consideration of the impact of these difficulties on how people with aphasia experience reading in their everyday lives. Previous studies, using semi-structured interviews, have highlighted the need to consider reading from the perspective of the individual due to the complexity of factors influencing reading

Background: This paper presents the pilot testing of an online professional development (PD) course for New Zealand (NZ) speech-language therapists (SLTs) working with Māori with stroke-related communication disorders (predominantly aphasia). Taking a public health approach and focusing on the context of Māori as Indigenous peoples in a colonised society, the course lays the foundation for aphasia

Background: Aphasia is one of the frequent consequences of stroke. The Stroke and Aphasia Quality of Life Scale-39 (SAQOL-39) is a commonly used instrument for measuring the quality of life in persons with aphasia following stroke. Aims: The aim of this study was twofold: (1) to examine the reliability and validity of the Persian version of the SAQOL-39, and (2) to examine the agreement between the

Background: Generalization of treatment effects is the ultimate goal of therapy. However, treatment generalization across language modalities is not well understood in the aphasia literature and requires further investigation. This work examined the generalization effects of two word retrieval therapies, Phonomotor Treatment (PMT) and Semantic Feature Analysis (SFA), to reading performance in individuals

Background: While persons with aphasia (PwA) are often dichotomised as fluent or nonfluent, agreement that fluency is not an all-or-nothing construct has led to the use of continuous variables as a way to quantify fluency, such as multi-dimensional rating scales, speech rate, and utterance length. Though these measures are often used in research, they provide little information about the underlying

Background: Languages of the world have several ways of expressing time reference. Many languages such as those in the Indo-European group express time reference through tense. Languages such as Chinese and Standard Indonesian express time reference through aspectual adverbs, while Akan does so through grammatical tone. Previous studies have found that time reference is selectively impaired, with reference

Background: The diagnostic criteria for the semantic variant of primary progressive aphasia (svPPA) include the possible presence of acquired surface dyslexia or dysgraphia. Acquired surface dyslexia is characterized by a greater difficulty in reading irregular words with the production of regularization errors. On the other hand, acquired surface dysgraphia is characterized by difficulties in writing

Purpose: To investigate the effects of symbol format and verb argument structure on the naming, identification, and sentence generation in people with aphasia (PWA). Methods: A 2 × 2 randomized, mixed factorial design was used. Symbol format was the between-subjects variable with a photograph condition and a video condition. Verb argument structure was the within-subjects variable and included two-

Background: Empirical study of the effects of treatment for acquired apraxia of speech (AOS) has been ongoing for more than four decades. The evidence-base supporting behavioral therapies for AOS has been systematically reviewed previously. However, a substantial body of AOS treatment research has accumulated which has not been summarized in any form. Aims: The aim of the current report is to provide

Background: Findings from several studies have indicated that participants with nfvPPA and participants with svPPA exhibit different patterns on action and object naming tasks, while other recent studies have found that neither participants with nfvPPA nor participants with svPPA show a significant difference in accuracy between object naming and action naming. Aims: The goal of this study was to test

Background: The concept of fluency is widely used to dichotomously classify aphasia syndromes in both research and clinical practice. Despite its ubiquity, reliability of fluency measurement is reduced due to its multi-dimensional nature and the variety of methods used to measure it. Aims: The primary aim of the study was to determine what factors contribute to judgements of fluency in aphasia, identifying

Background: Group therapy has shown benefit in language recovery in patients with aphasia (PWA). However, many in the field question its role in improving quality of life for PWA, as well as whether socio-demographic factors are related to observed improvements. Aims: To explore socio-demographic characteristics potentially associated with improvement in quality of life following a multicomponent aphasia

(2020). Repeated word production is inconsistent in both aphasia and apraxia of speech. Aphasiology. Ahead of Print.

Background: The Aphasia Rapid Test (ART) is a screening test developed for fast speech/language assessment of people in the acute stroke period. This test has been developed for French and English and was recently adapted for Portuguese and Italian. Nowadays, such a standardised screening test is in a great need at clinics with Russian-speaking patients. To fill this gap, the ART was adapted for Russian

ABSTRACT Background: The localization and organization of language has been an ongoing research interest ever since the early findings of Paul Broca. The emergence of neuroimaging the past 20 years has given us new insights on the anatomical and structural organization of the brain. Lesion studies on patients with aphasia can provide knowledge on where and how specific language functions are organized

Background: Globalization has resulted in a growing bilingual population worldwide; thus, bilingual speakers with aphasia are also increasing. The ability to juggle languages has been reported to enhance attentional control abilities in healthy populations. However, few studies have looked at the impact of bilingualism on attentional control abilities in individuals with aphasia. Different subcomponents

ABSTRACT Background: Inflecting the verb for agreement requires an intact discourse-semantic ability in addition to that for morphosyntax, since the use of person involves a link between the participants in the speech act and the morphosyntactic expression of this feature. Unlike the first person (the Speaker), the second person (the Addressee) requires additional discourse processing, termed “discourse-linking”

Background: Speech and language therapy is effective in improving language outcomes in acquired aphasia. However, it remains unclear which therapy parameters are most important to ensure gains. Published literature reviews are limited by the heterogeneity of the protocols considered, conflation of important parameters, and/or the paucity of the studies reviewed. Aims: We carried out two new reviews

ABSTRACT Background: Writing ability is of increasing importance in our computerised societies, yet research into functional text writing in persons with aphasia (PWA) remains scarce. Knowledge is limited of how different aspects of the writing process interact during writing. Spelling ability has commonly been investigated using dictation tests, but it is not known to what extent those results relate

Background: Verbal short-term memory (STM) and the related ability, working memory (WM), are widely understood to be integral components of language production and comprehension. However, assessment of these abilities in people with aphasia is hampered by a lack of valid, standardized measures that are clinically appropriate. Focusing primarily on verbal STM, we held a series of five focus groups with

Background: Recent studies have emphasized the importance of initial aphasia severity as a determinant of aphasia recovery. However, data on predictors of initial post-stroke aphasia severity itself are far from adequate in the available literature. Aims: The objective of the present study was to enumerate the predictors of initial aphasia severity following stroke. Methods & Procedures: Bengali version

Background: Most treatments for acquired apraxia of speech (AOS) rely on clinician-controlled practice conditions and repeated exposure to unimpaired speaker models. Recent motor learning research indicates that autonomy-support, expectation of competence, and external attentional focus may be more beneficial for motivation and skill learning. Aims: We evaluated the feasibility and basic therapeutic

Background: Visual functioning is often affected in persons with aphasia following stroke and other brain injuries. Characterizing the visual functioning of persons with aphasia is imperative in both clinical and research domains; however, visual functioning of persons with aphasia is infrequently assessed or described in either domain. Aims: This study aims to examine the utility of various visual

Background: Providing aphasia care in multilingual and multicultural settings necessitates increased attention in light of current migration and globalisation patterns. Delivering care that is meaningful and appropriate for people living with aphasia becomes challenging in cases where speech-language therapists are not able to speak the languages of people with aphasia, and in instances where there

Background: A robust finding from language acquisition, adult processing, and individuals with language impairment is that certain types of Object Relatives (ORs) and Object Questions (OQs) are more challenging in both production and comprehension compared to their Subject counterparts. Approaches informed by linguistic theory have been proposed to clarify the source of the difficulties with these

Background: Characterizing productive language deficits following lesions to the right (RH) or left hemispheres (LH) is valuable in identifying appropriate therapeutic goals. While damage to the LH classically is associated with deficits in language, RH lesions also result in changed communication beyond prosody due to cognitive-linguistic effects. Cohesion, reference to introduced content across sentences

Background: Cross-linguistic studies on time reference in highly inflected languages have shown that tense inflection is particularly vulnerable in agrammatic speakers. According to the PAstDIscourseLInking Hypothesis (PADILIH), an asymmetry is predicted between past and non-past forms, due to the extra discourse linkage the former type imposes. Aims: The present paper investigates whether Greek agrammatic

Background: The evidence-base of therapy studies for reading difficulties is notably sparse, particularly for individuals with deep dyslexia. Research using grapheme-to-phoneme correspondence approaches to remediate the non-lexical reading route in deep dyslexia have been reported but with limited therapy success. The approach of bigraph-syllable blending training has met with some success enabling

Background: Patients with the semantic variant of Primary Progressive Aphasia (svPPA) offer a unique opportunity to study the relationship between lexical retrieval and semantics, as they are characterised by progressive degradation of central semantic representations. However, there are few studies of how lexical retrieval across languages is affected in multilingual speakers. Aims: We examine the

Background: Investigators are increasingly using qualitative research methods in studies with people with aphasia. While most qualitative research has relied on the pragmatic method of inquiry, and methods reliant on verbal communication such as interviews, there exists a gap in the literature on how to use these methods with people with communication impairments such as aphasia. Aims: This paper aims

Background: Debate surrounds the relationships between the systems involved in spoken word production, the activation governing production, and the role of syntax in production. Jargon aphasia provides an opportunity to investigate the relationship between syntax and phonology as it often involves retained syntax, alongside phonological deficits shown through neologistic output. Models of spoken word

Background: Attentive Reading with Constrained Summarization-Written (ARCS-W) is a treatment in development that was adapted to improve written and spoken discourse in people with mild aphasia by targeting the cognitive requirements of discourse production. The current research represents the second report of ARCS-W and aimed to refine the protocol and replicate previous results. Aims: Determine if

Background: People with aphasia (PWA) may have difficulty accessing information in their environment, including the hospital setting. Prior research has recommended the use of aphasia-friendly text-formatting principles, including using graphics when providing information to PWA. There is limited research into the impact of using such principles for hospital menus. Aims: To evaluate the impact of an

Background: Primary progressive aphasia (PPA) is aneurodegenerative condition in which isolated language deterioration is the most prominent feature accompanied by relatively preserved cognitive and executive functions. Aims: This case report describes the response of two participants with PPA to an innovative anomia treatment that combines a restorative and compensatory approach. Methods & Procedures:

ABSTRACT Background: Difficulties with word finding occasionally occur in all speakers and commonly in all aphasia types. An understanding of these difficulties and their treatment-induced improvement is of fundamental scientific and clinical importance. Phonological cueing yields immediate and treatment effects in behavioural and neural measures. Disagreement exists about the locus of the cueing effects

Background Individuals with primary progressive aphasia (PPA) and their caregivers want to know what to expect so that they can plan support appropriately. The ability to predict decline in naming and semantic knowledge, and advise individuals with PPA and their caregivers regarding future planning, would be invaluable clinically. Aims The aims of this study were to investigate patterns of decline